Pinpoints Pinpoints Magazine Spring 2020 | Page 18

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LUNCH
FOR
A 650-degree oven, a blast chiller at minus 40 degrees, and 750 lunches a day. This is not
your everyday math class, but it is every bit as much of a classroom as those of TLS’s
core subjects.
The newly expanded and refurbished dining
hall – with one of the walls TLS green – and the
completely new kitchen area are state-of-the-art.
Learning pairs nicely with savoring, as Chef Ryan
Laudenschlager and his team are committed to
diversity and creativity in menu planning. The
expansion has allowed for maximized food service,
reduced food waste, and more advance food-
planning, all the while accommodating a wide
variety of food allergies and dietary preferences.
Lots of changes, lots of enhancements, but
still and always, there is warm and constant
encouragement of good manners, of please and
thank you, and of proper table etiquette. The
timeless remains every bit as important as the new.
For those who remember lunch for the little ones
at 10:45 A.M., that’s a thing of the past. Lunch
is now at lunchtime, from 11:00 A.M. to 1:00
P.M. With detailed planning and the addition of
seven tables and 56 more chairs, there are three
lunch seatings now, rather than four. The dining
hall seats 272. Remaining unchanged though, the
Thanksgiving feast is still the biggest and most
anticipated day, with students, faculty and staff, and
many visitors totaling about 950.
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Chef Ryan, thrilled with his new domain, explains,
“It was my dream for this food service. The biggest
change is space. We have more room for storage,
more for prep, and more for serving, and that helps
tremendously. We have a great many special events
– board gatherings, parents’ meetings, breakfasts,
brunches, dinners, cocktail parties, and those are just
those off the top of my head.”
The servery, in its own area off the dining hall, is
a new – and hugely popular – addition, where the
kitchen staff members serve a plate of food from
the hot line to each individual, thereby reducing
food waste tremendously. The lunch line moves
speedily and efficiently. Modern and stylish black
merchandizers on either side of the servery offer
fresh fruit and beverages.